


happy ending

by triggeringthehealing (froggydarren)



Series: FullmoonFiclet Entries [128]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Future Fic, Gen, Getting Together, M/M, POV Derek, Past Events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 20:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17905463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/triggeringthehealing
Summary: If you want a happy ending, it depends on where you stop the story.Through the years, Derek thought about the quote often. He wondered which ending would be right for him, where his story was going to stop.





	happy ending

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Full Moon Ficlet](http://fullmoonficlet.tumblr.com/) challenge on tumblr - prompt #316: end

It's a quote that lingers on Derek's mind through the years. He heard it it in school a long time ago, as part of his English class. 

_If you want a happy ending, it depends on where you stop the story._

He thought about it so many times that it comes to him naturally every time something _big_  starts or ends. Every time there's a major change for the better or for worse. 

The first time he remembers clearly thinking about it was right after the fire. He recalls telling himself that it wasn't the right moment to stop his story because the ending wouldn't be happy. He'd thought about it after, when he was in New York with Laura. Wondered whether he should have done what she stopped him from—running into the burning house, trying to save them. He knows now that it would have been pointless, that the same mountain ash circle that kept his family  _in_  would leave him outside with no way of breaking through, not without the help of a druid or a human. He sometimes wonders why none of the humans inside broke it, but it's a futile exercise in self-torture. 

He also thought about it later, when he found Laura dead in the forest and then when he discovered that it was Peter who killed her. There were many instances during those years when he reminded himself that it wasn't the end, that it couldn't be if he wanted to call it a happy ending. Even when he didn't believe that he _could_  have one, the quote still kept coming to him without him trying to think of it. 

But then the war against the hunters, the one that the werewolves didn't start but intended to finish, was winding down. There were almost no bloodthirsty hunters left in the country and those who were outside it were likely to stay there. Derek was along for the ride as Scott and Chris formed an alliance so strong that it convinced the majority of other hunter families that they could help instead of attacking packs that protected territories and never hurt anyone in anything other than self-defense. 

It was during that time that he became close with the pack. He knew he would never really be a part of it, he'd never be Scott's Beta—not for lack of consideration—but he was at least pack-adjacent. At least that's what Stiles called him. Them, really. Because Stiles, regardless of his close friendship with Scott that survived more than most friendships ever do, didn't return to Beacon Hills permanently. Many of those who were on the outskirts of the pack stayed that way because they never came back for more than occasional visits. Jackson and Ethan in London where they were eventually joined by Danny. Isaac in France, where Chris found him a pack to call family, one with a strong alliance to the Argents there, similar to Chris's alliance with Scott. Cora in South America, with the pack that took her in after the fire, the one that welcomed her back with open arms when Derek and Peter dropped her off after she returned to Beacon Hills for a while. 

Pater, of course, still harbored ideas of taking over, but as far as Derek was aware he kept those ideas in check. More so when he found a new partner and looked like he was going to settle down again, have a home. 

Malia continued traveling, visiting places around the world and—Derek suspected—looking for her mother to get the answers she didn't get before. Ones she would never get from Peter. 

There were those who stayed in Beacon hills, or who came back. Kira, for one, when her training was complete and she was in control of her Kitsune powers again. Liam, Corey, and Mason, all of whom left for college and then came back. 

Others stayed the whole time, like Melissa, Chris, John, and Jordan. All of them found their own happy endings right there in town, some with each other. 

The quote about those happy endings stayed out of Derek's mind for a while during the years when things weren't as hectic though still not completely calm. It felt like limbo—Monroe still on her mission to attack and eradicate werewolves, Scott's pack working on stopping her. 

It wasn't until she was taken out by a hunter, of all people, when she attacked their family instead of a werewolf pack and more people realized that her goals were dangerous and unattainable. There were still factions of her former army around the world, but they were scattered and without a leader, which made them a lot less of a threat. 

That was when Derek finally started looking for a place to settle down again. The land in Beacon Hills still belonged to him but he handed some of it to Scott, who was the territory's Alpha now, nd a small fraction to Peter to help him settle down close to what he used to call home. 

But Derek wanted to find somewhere else. 

In the end, he found his way to New York, to the apartment that Laura bought after the fire, the one where he spent years back then. It was still theirs in name and with her gone, the deed was transferred to Derek. The place held too many bad memories though so he sold it but then decided to stay nearby. He moved outside of the city, to a less inhabited area, on the territory of a pack he became friendly with in the process of trying to stop Monroe and her minions. 

Then, as if by coincidence, it turned out that Stiles got assigned to the FBI offices right there, in the city. There was a whole new department in the agency, spearheaded by Rafael and Stiles—once he was done with training—to deal with the supernatural side of the world. 

"So, you're dealing with X-files," Derek said once and got a whole lecture on how werewolves existing was reason enough to wonder whether aliens were around too. 

When Stiles found out that Derek had a home in the area, he insisted that they keep in touch. Derek didn't mind, long past the resentment he carried with him about their initial meeting along with the reason for his arrest and many other things. Stiles turned into a good friend fast and they ended up spending a lot of their free time together. 

That's why he's here now, in the house he's made into a home, with Stiles stretched out on the couch the morning after spending the night there. They kissed for the first time less than twelve hours ago, the tension that's been growing between them for the past few months finally making Stiles snap and ask whether he was the only one feeling more. 

He wasn't, Derek told him. 

Now, knowing that this is something he really wants to work, seeing Stiles perfectly comfortable in the house—unsurprisingly, he spends more time here than in his own apartment—makes him think of the quote again. 

"If you want a happy ending," he mumbles under his breath, glancing out of the window once he pulls his eyes away from Stiles.

It's not him who says, "it depends on where you stop the story." 

"Hey," Derek says, turning back to the couch. 

Stiles is there, getting up and looking like he's still mostly asleep, but his eyes are glued on Derek. 

"Are you trying to tell me this is the end?" 

Derek shakes his head. 

"It's just a thing I've been going back to for a long time. It never felt like a happy ending."

"And this does?" Stiles asks, walking up to him and reaching for Derek's hand. 

"Maybe. The end of something. The beginning of something else?" 

There's more hope in his voice than he intended to, more hesitation too. _It's too soon to be talking about the future this seriously,_ he thinks, but the words are out there now and he can't take them back.

"You know, I've heard your quote before, many times," Stiles says, leaning against Derek's side as they both look out into the forest around the house. "But there's another one that fits right now"

Derek knows he doesn't need to ask, that Stiles will tell him anyway. 

"Every end is a new beginning." 

"I like that," Derek tells him. 

"So, we stop the old story here and start our own." 

Derek smiles and turns to kiss him. 

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://froggydarren.tumblr.com/) || [my sterek fic tumblr](http://triggeringthehealing.tumblr.com/)


End file.
